Rate mitigation plan a hastily concocted grab bag

April 15, 2019

The NDP Caucus says only today, on the eve of another election, are the Liberals offering a hastily concocted grab bag of ideas on how to deal with rate mitigation, despite the fact that they were elected almost four years ago.

Today in Question Period, NDP House Leader Lorraine Michael (MHA, St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi) asked the Premier why he waited until the last minute to pretend he has a plan, knowing, as we all did, that this was going to be a monumental problem.

“One of the largest claims in government’s so-called rate mitigation plan is $200 million from the federal government,” Michael said.

“I ask the Premier, will he please tell the people of the province exactly how he has come up with the $200 million figure from the federal government?”

Michael says for the past month, on the eve of an unnecessarily early provincial election call, government has been flagrantly using its executive power to pile spending announcements on the people of the province.

“I ask the Premier, does he think the electorate will not see through his attempts to buy their votes with their own money?” Michael asked.

Michael says this morning’s announcement on rate mitigation lists no details on the numbers government claims will be used to lower Muskrat Falls power rates.

“I ask the Premier, how do you expect people to believe your so-called plan will work with absolutely no detail on how government arrived at these numbers?” said Michael.